Discouraging smoking behaviors among nursing students: a cross-sectional study

Objective To investigate the status and influence factors of discouraging smoking behaviors among nursing students and to provide evidences for carrying out tobacco control education.Methods Cluster sampling was employed to survey 5 210 nursing students recruited from two public medical colleges in main urban area of Chongqing with a questionnaire during November to December 2014.Results Among the students surveyed, 45.5% reported ever discouraging their relatives from smoking and 34.0% reported ever discouraging strangers from smoking in public places with obvious no-smoking signs.The results of univariate analysis demonstrated that discouraging strangers from smoking in public places was significantly affected by 14 factors, including the students' gender, grade, whether being a smoker, parental smoking, knowledge and attitude on tobacco control, and perceived smoking control environment and practice in the society(P<0.05 for all).Multivariate analysis revealed that the students with high score for tobacco-control know-ledge, against secondhand smoke(passive smoking), having positive attitude towards active smoking cessation service, with willingness of participating in tobacco control practice, paying attention to tobacco control information in media, having communication with other persons about tobacco hazards, and having experience of discouraging others form smoking successfully were more likely to have discouraging smoking behaviors in public places(P<0.05 for all).Conclusion There are many factors influencing discouraging smoking behavior in public places among college students majoring in nursing; both tobacco control education and training on tobacco control skill need to be strengthened among the students.